Mail sorting and handling systems are commonly used in government postal facilities and by private or corporate mail handling facilities. Often, private or corporate customers receive reduced rates from the United States Postal Service (USPS) by sorting outgoing mail before sending it to the USPS. Sorters are well known in the art, and are described further herein.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate two typical prior art single and multi-tier mail handling and sorting systems 100A and 100B. The single tier handling system 100A typically comprises a front end 3 and stacker or bin section 5 comprised of a plurality of bins 10. The front end 3 accepts mail or mail pieces to be sorted and conveyed to the stacker or bin section 5 where the mail pieces are selectively directed or guided to an appropriate bin 10. The front end 3 can be comprised of a series of conveying sections 2 which use motorized rollers, transport belts and idlers to convey or transport mail pieces from the front end 3 to the stacker or bin section 5. The number of conveying sections 2 in a system can vary depending on the specific application and use of a particular mail handling facility.
The system 100A shown in FIG. 1A depicts a single tier double sided stacker section 5. The single tier double sided stacker section 5 has a standard configuration that comprises a left 13 and a right side 15. Each side 13 and 15 typically comprises a plurality of bins or pockets 10 that are operatively situated adjacent to each other. The particular bins or pockets 10 each have associated transport mechanisms 17 and 19 that will appropriately operate to selectively guide a mail piece into the appropriate bin or pocket 10 upon receipt of an appropriate computer 7 command. The series of transport mechanisms 17 and 19 can include motorized rollers, compliant rollers, transport belts and associated idlers and other components. The series of transport mechanism belts form a mail path guide channel 21 where the mail pieces will travel until they are diverted into an appropriate bin or pocket 10. The mail pieces can be diverted either left to a bin 10 on the left side 13 or diverted right to a bin 10 on the right side 15.
Another type of mail handling system 100B, shown in FIG. 1B, uses a multi-tier single sided stacker section 30 with turnaround and further includes a front end 3 and a transition or elevator section 25. The transition section 25 takes the mail pieces received from the front end 3 and feeds them to the appropriate level or tier of the multi-tier single sided stacker section 30 where the mail pieces are selectively diverted to an appropriate bin or pocket 10. The mail handling system 100B shown has a configuration that comprises a rear side 32 and front side 34 operatively connected by a turnaround section 36. The rear side 32 and front side 34 typically comprise a plurality of bins or pockets 10 that are operatively connected to each other by the turnaround section 36. The bins or pockets 10 are similar to those described above and also have associated transport mechanisms that will appropriately operate to selectively guide a mail piece into the appropriate bin or pocket 10. The transport mechanisms include motorized rollers, transport belts and associated cooperative idlers. The series of transport mechanisms on each bin 10 operate in conjunction with a system transport belt and roller mechanism that are operatively situated between the front side 34 and the rear side 32 to form a double mail path guide channel where the mail pieces will travel until they are diverted into an appropriate bin or pocket 10. Unlike the double sided system 100A of FIG. 1A, the single sided system with turnaround 30 has a separate turnaround section 36, and the mail pieces can be diverted only to one side. As the mail pieces travel down the front side 34 of the multi-tier single sided stacker section 30, they can be diverted to a bin on the front side 34. In order for the mail pieces to be diverted to a bin or pocket 10 in the rear side 32, the mail pieces must completely traverse the front side 34 and traverse the turnaround section 36. The mail pieces then enter the rear side 32 where they can be appropriately diverted to a bin or pocket 10 on the rear side 32. Alternate configurations of sorters have a single central mail transport path located between the front 34 and rear 32 sides. Mail is diverted from the central transport to either side eliminating the need for the turnaround 36.
The processing or sorting of the mail pieces is typically controlled by a computer 7 with appropriate hardware and software applications to carryout desired automated mail processing functions. The front end 3 also generally comprises various auxiliary devices that in conjunction with the computer 7 allow the computer 7 to determine which particular bin 10 will receive a mail piece. The auxiliary devices can include optical character recognition readers, ink jet printers, scales and bar code readers among others devices.
The double and single sided systems 100A and 100B briefly discussed can be expanded to increase mail handling capacity. Increasing mail handling capacity of existing mail handling systems is known to be done in a couple of ways. First, existing bin sections can be replaced with new larger sorting bins having the desired or necessary mail handling capacity. Second, the mail handling capacity of the mail handling system 100A and 100B can be increased by the addition of stacker or bin sections 5 and 30 in an outward direction only. Generally, the second expansion approach is preferable to the first and is typically less expensive.
Notwithstanding these improvements, throughput of systems 100A and 100B is limited because input mail batches must be presorted. FIG. 2 illustrates conceptually a plurality of mail batches 202, 204, 206, 208 applied to the front end 210 of document process machine 200. Each of the plurality of mail batches 202, 204, 206, 208 are processed (e.g., sorted) by customer (e.g. mailer or client), mail characteristics (e.g. mail dimensions, weight, etc) and postage type (i.e., by stamp, permit and metered postage) and postage affixed (amount of postage paid).
A reader 212, such as an optical character recognition readers and bar code readers mentioned above, detects the destination information of each mail piece as it is conveyed from the front end 210 from the plurality of batches 202, 204, 206, 208. The computer 214 then directs each mail piece to the appropriate bin 216 based the destination information detected by reader 212 as processed by computer 214. Once sorting has been completed for a job, mailing instructions or a mailing report with POSTAL AUTHORITY documentation is generated by the computer 214 typically by a count of the number of mail pieces by client for each weight or weight range and postage type and postage amount affixed.
Even with the high capacity improvements mentioned above, input mail must be pre-sorted in mail batches by weight or some other common aspect of the mail pieces including, but not limited to, postage type and postage amount affixed and customer. This presorting is required because USPS or other postal authority requires that the mailing report define how many pieces of mail are being presented for mailing by weight, client, type of postage type and postage amount affixed and by either three or five digit zipcode. As well, the POSTAL AUTHORITY may require, or the need may arise and require, the mailing report be further broken down by postage type and postage amount affixed and/or customer.
The computer 214 also must track and report the same data by client so that postage billing can be made to the correct customer. As a result, processing time is increased as a result of the time it takes to presort. Current sorters can only achieve this tracking and reporting if each batch 202, 204, 206, 208 is processed as a separate run. Throughput is lost each time a new batch is setup and run on the sorter. Especially when processing multiple small batches of mail, the cumulative downtime for each setup and run can substantially degrade sorter throughput.